Making a car insurance claim after an accident, comprehensive or third party

Your fault or not, after an accident or vandalism you may want to make a claim on your car insurance or not? What to do if the driver is uninsured or won't give you their details.

If you have an Accident..!

Do Not admit fault at the scene.

Exchange details with other party and independent witnesses.

Contact insurer as soon as possible even if not claiming.

If someone is injured produce proof of insurance to Police within 7 days.

Take evidence in the form of photos or video clips.

Do you have comprehensive or third party..?

If you have third party insurance make a claim against the other driver and allow the insurer to decide who is responsible, comprehensive policy owners should claim from their own insurer and from the other driver's insurer for any injuries or losses not covered by your own policy.

Not your fault..?

To avoid losing your no claims bonus you can use a credit hire company to pay for the cost of hiring a replacement vehicle and repairs, they will claim back these costs from the insurance company of the other driver who is at fault in the accident including compensation for injuries or losses.

Uninsured Driver or can’t be identified..?

If you have comprehensive cover you can claim from your insurance
or contact The Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) at mib.org.uk who covers all claims under the Untraced Drivers Agreement, Uninsured Drivers Agreement and the Green Card Scheme.

Repairs...

Get your insurer's permission before starting any repairs as they may want to send someone to inspect it and you may have to use an approved repairer. You may be asked to get estimates and obtain approval before going ahead with repairs, expect to pay some of the repair cost if your vehicle is in a better condition after repairs than it was beforehand.

Write-off...

You may be offered the vehicle's market value if your car is not economical to repair but may be able to negotiate to keep it as an insurance write off.

A car may be called a write-off or total loss by an insurance company under the following categories:

Category A - Scrap value, body and parts crushed
Caegory B - Body cushed but parts salvaged
Category C - can be repaired but costs more than the value of the car
Category D - can be repaired and the car value is greater

The insurer will only let you keep the car if it can be safly repaired and money will be taken off the amount you get, to cover the cost of the salvage value

Older cars...

Some insurers will write off a car if the cost of the repairs is as little as 60% of the value of the car so you may decide not to claim on your insurance and get the car repaired yourself. If you do make a claim you may be able to negotiate a higher value than first offered by the insurance company and find a garage that charges less than the insurer's approved garage buy will have to get their approval before you go ahead.